Week 4 Discussion Questions 1 & 2 - Jamie Acker

Practice: Week 4 Discussion Question 1 (Due Thursday 3/22)

Review case: Countrywide Corporation Shareholder Litigation

Respond to the following: 

Yellow Group question

What is the duty of care required of the board of directors and its individual members according to professional resources? Include in your discussion the "business judgment" rule. Do you think the Countrywide board met this standard?

Blue Group question

From the perspective of the stakeholders, identify some of the ethical issues that you can that relate to legal considerations in the Countrywide ruling. Find and provide expert resources to argue what ethical safeguards would have been effective? 

Orange Group question

Find an appropriate source and talk about the Countrywide whistleblower. Engage in various aspects of how this affected the company. Relate also to the benefits and detriments of whistleblowing according to professional resources.

Green Group question

As a future CPA and leader of the profession, what would you have done differently at Countrywide for your part? Argue your case with leadership writing and support from the professional journals of Accountancy.

  Analytical Requirements: Introduce the situation. Introduce and define or situate on the theme from the textbook (cite and reference). Step through the elements using facts, logical reasoning, and appropriate responses as a CPA and member of the AICPA. Conclude on the theme.

Scope: Your original response should be 350-500 words in length and meet the APA and writing standards as shown in the CWE for Masters Level II. Follow up responses should be 150 words in length (graded under participation).

Professional references (no third party): Required: Content from the textbook, AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, a professional Accountancy journal from the United States of America, Accounting technical guidance for any factual assertions. Recommended: Peer reviewed ethical websites (not professor in courses websites), Journal of Business Ethics, and related literature. For assigned Accounting firm questions, specifically used and linked resources from the firm's website.

Practice: Week 4 Discussion Question 2

Review Case 5-9 Fannie Mae: The Government's Enron

Respond to the following:

Situate yourself as an experienced CPA and leader in your assigned Accounting firm. First determine 3 major elements of what went wrong. Then, applying your Assigned Accounting firm's values and other professional and expert publications, describe how these could have been prevented or remedied.

Fannie Mae's corporate governance system failed to identify excessive risk-taking. Describe those risks and the mechanisms that should have been used by Fannie Mae and KPMG to enhance risk assessment according to authoritative expert resources. 

Analytical Requirements: Introduce the situation. Introduce and define or situate on the theme from the textbook (cite and reference). Step through the elements using facts, logical reasoning, and appropriate responses as a CPA and member of the AICPA. Conclude on the theme.

Scope: Your original response should be 350-500 words in length and meet the APA and writing standards as shown in the CWE for Masters Level II. Follow up responses should be 150 words in length (graded under participation).

Professional references (no third party): Required: Content from the textbook, AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, a professional Accountancy journal from the United States of America, Accounting technical guidance for any factual assertions. Recommended: Peer reviewed ethical websites (not professor in courses websites), Journal of Business Ethics, and related literature.

For assigned Accounting firm questions, specifically used and linked resources from the firm's website.